The Plight Of Huma Abedin, Wife Of Embattled Rep. Anthony Weiner

Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., and his wife, Huma Abedin, an aide to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, are pictured after a ceremonial swearing in of the 112th Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington in this photo taken Jan. 5, 2011. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Friends describe her as a stunning and smart woman.

Huma Abedin married embattled congressman Anthony Weiner last July. At 34 years old, she is 11 years younger than Weiner. Abedin, who is Muslim, was born in Michigan to a Pakistani mother and an Indian father. She also lived for a time in Saudi Arabia.

“She also said that she loved me and she said that we’re going to get through this. But she deserves much better than this and I know that,” the Brooklyn and Queens congressman said.

Abedin can usually be found just behind or beside Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, for whom she has worked as a close aide since 1996. She has also witnessed the pain the Monica Lewinsky scandal caused her boss.

By all accounts, the relationship between Abedin and Clinton is an unusually tight and long-lived working one, cemented in trust and discretion. That has led many to wonder what advice she has received from Clinton now that the tables have turned.

Sex expert Dr. Logan Levkoff said that betrayal does not necessarily have to involve physical intimacy or sex.

“For some relationships, emotional infidelity is far worse and far more painful,” she said.